Handling redirects with Express

Sep 16, 2018

Learn how to redirect server-side in Express with the res.redirect() method, returning a 302 by default or 301, and redirecting to absolute or relative paths.

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Redirects are common in Web Development. You can create a redirect using the Response.redirect() method:

res.redirect('/go-there')

This creates a 302 redirect.

A 301 redirect is made in this way:

res.redirect(301, '/go-there')

If you’re unsure whether you want a 301, 302, 307 or 308, I built a free HTTP status codes lookup that explains when to use each one.

You can specify an absolute path (/go-there), an absolute url (https://anothersite.com), a relative path (go-there) or use the .. to go back one level:

res.redirect('../go-there')
res.redirect('..')

You can also redirect back to the Referer HTTP header value (defaulting to / if not set) using

res.redirect('back')

Tagged: Express.js · All topics

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